Picture Credit: Twitter
India's top-ranked table tennis player Manika Batra advanced to the 2nd round of the women's singles event at the Tokyo Olympics after beating Britain’s Tin-Tin Ho 11-7, 11-6, 12-10, 11-9. World no. 63 claimed a comfortable straight-set victory and in the process, became the first Indian woman to win a match in 29 years in the Women's Singles of the Olympics.
Here's all you need to know about her:
Name: Manika Batra
Born on: June 15, 1995
Hails from: New Delhi
Profession: Table tennis player
Achievements: Women’s singles gold medal in the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games and the bronze medal in mixed doubles at the 2018 Asiad
At Olympics: 2016 Rio Games, 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Parents: Sushma Batra, Girish Batra
Started playing TT: At the age of 4
Awards won: The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award winner
First International medal: At the Chile Open in under-21 category
Batra's impressive 2018 Commonwealth Games campaign
Manika Batra became the first Indian woman to win gold in the women's individual event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games by defeating Yu Mengyu in the final. She finished with two golds, one silver and one bronze. She was India's best performer overall with four medals.
Fun Fact: Manika featured on the front page of Femina in 2018 and also featured in an edition of Vogue. She enrolled at Jesus and Mary College (Womens college in New Delhi), but dropped out after just a year as she wanted to focus full time on table tennis.
